1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a decorative and ornamental set of jewelry motifs, or appliques, that are pre-assembled and attached to a thin film, and may easily be adhered or attached to the body, toe nail, finger nail or eye lid of the wearer. These jewelry motifs include decorative and colorfiil arrangements of stones, wire, plastic, and the like, or a combination thereof.
The term xe2x80x9cappliquexe2x80x9d as used throughout this specification and its appended claims, is intended to also refer to decals with designs comprised of wiring attached thereon; decals with one or more stones or the like attached thereon, decals with a combination of stones, wiring, or the like attached thereon, self-adhesive body, fingernail, toe nail, and eyelid jewelry, and the like.
The term xe2x80x9cstonexe2x80x9d as used throughout this specification and its appended claims, is also intended to refer to gem stones, synthetic gem stones, rhinestones, plastic emulated stones, small beads, plastic in various geometric embodiments, which may be cylindrical, oval, spherical, semi-spherical, triangular, square, or other classical or more contemporary shapes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, body parts, toe nails, fingernails and eye lids have been adorned with fingernail polish, air brushing, thin film water stencils, eye liner, and jewelry-like objects like metal wire that in some cases may be fastened or pasted onto the body parts, toe nails, fingernails and eye lids. A more recent fingernail industry fad is to attach rhinestones directly to the fingernail with a glue, to give the fingernail a decorative effect. These processes of decorating the fingernail can be complicated and time-consuming, and may not have the aesthetically desired results. Furthermore, the attaching means may damage the fingernail and surrounding tissues, with piercings, holes, excessive applications of glue or cement, and the like.
The following prior art was found in a patent search, but non detract from the patentability of the herein disclosed invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,782,638 Issued to Warren, III et al.
This reference is directed to an ornamental film article for dental substrate decoration and a dental substrate decorated therewith. FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional side elevation view of the applique article 300 of FIG. 11, shown as adhesively bonded to a dental substrate 322. The applique article 300 comprises a metal foil body 301 adhesively bonded to the front surface 324 of a dental substrate 322 by adhesive 320. By such mounting of the applique 300 on the front surface 324 of the dental substrate 322, the main top surface 302 of the applique, bearing the decorative indicia thereon, as shown in FIG. 11, is presented to front view as a decorative artifact on the dental substrate surface 324.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,581,088 Issued to House
This reference is directed to finger jewels. FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of the imitation set jewel 20, taken along lines 8xe2x80x948 of FIG. 7. The beveled edge 19 of the imitation set jewel 20 has been coated by the metal 10 from the heat transfer foil 3. This coating 10 acts to accentuate the edge 19 of the jewel 20, as well as to give the jewel 20 an appearance of depth. The fact that the center portion 18 of the surface of the jewel 20 is not coated with the metal 10 creates the appearance of a gem set within a metal perimeter. FIG. 8 further shows the adhesive layer 13 which binds the jewel to the paper liner 14 so that the jewel 20 may be easily transported during shipping. The adhesive 13 only weakly adheres the jewel 20 to the liner 14. This allows one to easily pry the jewel 20 from the paper liner 14 when one wishes to use the product for application, as shown in FIG. 9.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,594,276 Issued to Relyea
This reference is directed to printed, removable body tattoos on a translucent substrate. The removable body tattoos comprise a flexible, porous, non-woven compacted tissue or compacted fibrous translucent substrate having at least one surface, a printed image over said surface, and a pressure-sensitive adhesive on the other surface of the substrate. The substrate is a film or sheet material which may effectively be of any polymeric film, as long as the substrates are translucent. The printed image may be partially precut so that the edge of the applique is the perimeter of the image, or any shape may be cut so that the transparency of translucency of the backing without printing thereon allows the image to stand out.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,220,016 Issued to Frenger
This reference is directed to skin jewelry. The jewelry of this system is worn on the skin of the wearer. The adhesive layer 14 adheres the flexible and resilient material of sheet 12 to the skin of the wearer. The resilient and flexible material of sheet 12 is securely attached to the remaining portions of the jewelry 2. The jewelry 2 comprises an outer retainer 4, a decorative jewel 6, a back plate 8, a layer 10 of adhesive, a sheet 12 of flexible and resilient material, and a second layer 14 of adhesive.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,239,840 Issued to Sutterlin
This reference is directed to a decorative insert for artificial fingernails. FIG. 3 shows a lateral view of a decorative insert placed into an artificial fingernail 8. FIG. 4 shows a front view of an inserted decorative insert. It can be seen that the lower edge 3 of the upper part 2 and the upper edge 6 of the base foot edge 5 are formed to follow the curvature of the artificial fingernail, and thus, the decorative insert is securely maintained in the artificial fingernail.
A primary application for the present invention is to decorate and adorn a body part, toe nail, fingernail or eye lid in a new and useful manner, and with relative ease and in a timely manner.
In trying to solve the above-described industry problems and disadvantages, and within the scope of this objective, the invention addresses the above-described problems and disadvantages which solutions need not be expensive or involve complex technology.
The advantages of a simple embodiment of the present invention include:
1. The appliques of the invention are inexpensive to manufacture.
2. The appliques of the invention are easily pre-assembled with a jewelry design motif, and do not require the storage of a number of jewelry and rhinestone accessories to make the invention functional.
3. The appliques of the invention are easy to apply to the fingernail, as it is designed to be in a pre-assembled and ready-to-apply state when purchased.
4. The appliques of the invention are a simpler and easier way of decorating a body part, toe nail, fingernail or eye lid as the decoration is on a self-adhesive applique, which may be attached directly with an adhesive of the type well known in the art and which of course is non-toxic. The appliques typically have raised objects attached to a thin film. These raised objects may include small decorative wires, stones, plastic pieces, or a combination thereof, and they are typically in arranged in an attractive and colorful jewelry motif.
5. The appliques of the invention are a quicker way of decorating a person""s body, as the decorative jewelry motifs and designs are pre-assembled onto a thin film substrate, and may be applied directly onto the exposed surface of the body part, the nail, fingernail or eye lid, thereby affording the user an already decorated jewelry motif to be easily applied with one simple application of the applique. The user may use a top coat or bond applied over the applique where nail application is contemplated, thereby allowing the applique to be bonded to the nail for a longer period of time.
6. The appliques of the invention have a raised and textured appearance and feeling, and are therefore more aesthetically appealing.